RAILWAY TRACK OR MARKET PLACE ?

A story without words. Just one remark, Indian trains don't have chemical toilets, just a hole, the rest I leave to your imagination.

GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION- INDIA HAS THE SOLUTION !

Most countries plan to reduce emission intensity; it’s just that no one wants it to be legally binding

CHINA
6.8 bn tonnes annually, 5.5 tonnes per capita
What it’s giving
China says it will cut its carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020, compared with 2005
What it wants
Developed nations’ targets to reduce GHG emissions not deep enough. It expects average cuts of at least 40% from 1990 levels by 2020 & wants a promise of more aid and technology
US
6.4 bn tonnes annually, 21 tonnes per capita
What it’s giving
The US has promised to cut 2005 emissions by 17%by 2020. It will extend cuts to 30% below 2005 levels by 2025, and 83% by 2050. Will work toward a goal of jointly mobilizing $100bn a year by 2020. Has pledged $1bn towards slowing deforestation
What it wants
An accord that covers all issues and has ‘immediate operational effect’
EU
5.03 bn tonnes annually, 5.5 tonnes per capita
What it’s giving
EU leaders agreed in Dec ’08 to cut emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 & by 30% if other developed nations follow suit. EU leaders have agreed that developing nations will need about $147 bn a year by 2020 to adapt to climate change
What it wants
EU wants developing nations to curb the rise of emissions by 15-30% by 2020

JAPAN
1.4 bn tonnes annually, 11 tonnes per capita
What it’s giving
Japan will cut emissions by 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. PM Hatoyama said Tokyo would also step up aid
AFRICA
Negligible emissions
Where they’re willing to compromise
African group scaled back demands for aid from rich countries, meeting offers made by developed nations
What it’s giving
Want developed nations to cut emissions by 45% below 1990 levels by 2020
INDIA
1.4 bn tonnes annually, 1.2 tonnes per capita
What it’s giving
Aims to cut carbon intensity by between 20-25% by 2020, from ’05 levels
What it wants
Like China, India wants rich nations to cut emissions by at least 40% by 2020 Additionally INDIA wants that each develped country introduces power cuts and loadsharing as usual in India. Having 4 hour of power cut each day the WEST would be able to save a lot more in green hous gases. As an additional step water rations should be introduced as e.g. 4 hours of tap water availability per day as usual in some Delhi districts.

SPITTING & THE INDIAN GENOME

J U G U L A R V E I N
Thoo be it
From Jug Suraiya



Yaark-thoo! Hey, watch it! Bloody hell. You almost got me. Sorry, where was i? Ah, yes. The decoding of the Indian genome. A team of CSIR scientists has, for the first time, unravelled the secrets that lie with the desi genome, using a sample taken from a 52-year-old DNA donor. A genome is like a map that helps us to chart our genetic karma – who and what we are, and what makes us tick and why. By studying the genetic sequences in the genome, scientists will be able to figure out why Indians are predisposed to diabetes, for instance, or coronary disease. Important as these revelations about blood sugar and dicky hearts undoubtedly will be, i’m hoping that the decoded genome will explain something seemingly far more fundamental to our inner being than a propensity to insulin deficiency and cardiac problems, something that identifies us Indians as Indians, whether we are in India or anywhere else on the face of the planet, North and South Poles, the Amazon basin, and the top of Mt Everest not excluded. What’s that something? Spitting.
Indians spit. Caste, creed and sex no bar. The frequent and energetic ejection of saliva – despite the cautionary notices put up in our post offices, ‘Do not affix stamp with sputum’ – spitting is not just a national pastime; it is a national passion. More than kabaddi, or kho-kho, or IPL, spitting is our true desi sport. And we practise it assiduously wherever we happen to be: on the streets, in bazaars, on railway platforms and bus addas and airports, in offices and schools and factories and restaurants and shops and… Yaark-thoo! Godalmighty! That’s the second time someone’s almost got me in the space of a single column.
How do we do it? Where does it all come from? The spit. The saliva. The sputum. The product of the salivary glands. What is it about our biological make-up that enables us to produce so much of the stuff that we seem to be forever having to get rid of it, expel it from our systems, lest through excess of it, surfeiting, our appetite for it would sicken and die.
Gutka helps. So do paans and paan masala. The scarlet and red and crimson splotches and splashes and streaks that our public buildings and streets are decorated with – as though they were a form of folk art, like the ancient cave paintings in Bhimbhetka and other places – bear witness to their efficacy as salivary stimulants, the Viagras of sputum. But though gutka and paans contribute to the phenomenon, they cannot explain it in its enigmatic entirety.
By and large – or rather, by and small – we Indians are not big people. True, the richer among us tend to be overweight. But for every XL Indian there are thousands, hundreds of thousands, of scrawny Indians. So, being small and skinny for the most part, how is it that we generate so much spit, the only natural resource which we seem to be in no danger of running out of? Where do we get it from, and where’s it stored? Do we possess a natural receptacle, like a kangaroo’s pouch, except inside rather than outside, where the stuff is tucked away till we thook! it out?
The decoded genome should tell us all this, and more. Or maybe not. Maybe our desi habit of spitting has got nothing to do with our genes. Maybe our spitting is not so much a genetic consequence as a social and political comment. Read a newspaper. Or watch the news on TV. Or just look around you.
Scams. Swindles. Satyam. Koda. Hawala. Telangana riots. Anti-Telangana riots. Anti-anti-Telangana riots. Political corruption. Bureaucratic corruption. Judicial corruption. Corruption corruption, where you have to bribe someone to accept a bribe.
Leave a bad taste in the mouth? So how do you get rid of it? That’s right, Yaark-thoo!
Can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

IS INDIA GOING OUT OF WATER ?

In a city where clean water has become a commodity that is delivered to the highest bidder, the poor often have to go without.
Yet those who have money can easily get enough. In Mumbai's wealthy suburbs, large tankers delivering water are commonplace.
Every day more than 5,000 tankers deliver some 50 million litres of water to people who can pay, according to unofficial estimates cited by the newspaper Mumbai Mirror.
Water shortages
But even if the wealthy were to go without such top-up deliveries, there would probably not be enough water to go around.
Mumbai's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) delivers some 90 litres of water per day to the city's residents.
That is far short of the 135 litres of water the World Health Organization (WHO) says they require for their basic needs.
So in Mumbai, there is growing anger over the water shortages.
Last month, BMC hydraulic engineers' office was vandalised by activists. Over the weekend, a man died after violent clashes in the city between police and protestors who demanded better access to water for the disabled.
Global problem
But the lack of access to clean water is by no means merely a problem facing those who live in India's biggest cities.
In the central Indian city of Bhopal, people who live in some of the slums pump drinking water from groundwater contaminated by industrial pollution. Children who live in the slum play by the filthy and rubbish-strewn river that runs past.
Head out into rural India, and three-quarters of the population does not have access to safe drinking water.
As the population continues to grow the problem is getting worse.
India's water needs are set to double over the next two decades, according to consultants McKinsey.
Production of rice, wheat and sugar is set to push up demand from Indian agriculture, the consultancy warns.
And the problem is growing, both in India, as well as in China, South Africa and Sao Paulo state in Brazil.
By 2030, the four areas will account for more than two fifths of the world's water demand, largely thanks to a sharp rise in food production, McKinsey says.
By then, demand for water will be 40% higher than it is currently, the consultancy predicts.
Huge market
Many in India are looking to the industrialist Ratan Tata for a solution.
There are high hopes that he has delivered after Tata Group launched a water purifier that helps curb the spread of water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid or diarrhoea.
Tata's purifier will cost less than 1,000 ($21.50; £13) rupees to buy, half the price of the popular Pureit purifier already being sold by Hindustan Unilever.
Tata Chemicals' managing director R. Mukundan insists its purifier is unique.
"It doesn't compete with any existing product."
Moreover, he says, "this is opening up a complete new market" - one that is huge and growing.
Although limited access to safe drinking water is a huge problem in India, this is a global problem that affects about a billion people, according to the WHO.
"For the vast majority... today's water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access," the WHO says.

As long as the only goal of India is to rise is population without considering the provide them a decent live the situation will go from bad to worse, ending in a collaps with civil war situations in the fight for essential commodities.

THE RENTED BABY

Publishment of The Telegraph by Dean Nelson in New Delhi


A wealthy Indian family discovered their seven month old son was being rented out to beggars by their own nanny while they were out at work.



It is common for female beggars to carry babies with empty milk bottles at traffic lights in India's main cities



Every day, the baby boy's mother would lay out his clothes for the day and leave him with his nanny while she went out to work for one of Bangalore's multinational companies.
But no sooner had she left than the child was dressed in rags, sedated with drugs, and handed over to a beggar gang which used him as a prop to generate sympathy and persuade passing motorists to part with their cash.

While the child was out the nanny relaxed on the couple's sofa, watched television soaps, and helped herself to contents of the fridge.
The family discovered their baby's double life when the mother came home early one day and found the nanny watching the television with no sign of the child.
The nanny or "ayah" as they are known in India, confessed that she had rented out the baby to a beggar gang for 100 rupees per day (around £1.25) and that the child had been spending his days on the streets for the last three weeks.
It is common for female beggars to carry babies with empty milk bottles at traffic lights in India's main cities, and rumours that babies are rented as props to increase the number of donations they receive, but there have been few proven cases.
The case has highlighted the extent to which organised begging operates as an industry in India.

THE BRAVE FISHERMAN OF KOVALAM

CORAL ART & THE COLLECTED SHELLS

My shell and coral collection of yesterday and this morning from Muttukadu beach.

SUN RISE AT MUTTUKADU BEACH

ANOTHER HONOUR CRIME IN HARYANA

Dwaipayan Ghosh | TNN



New Delhi: It’s yet another instance of what’s becoming a horrifyingly story. Three years after a young couple fled their village in Haryana from families opposed to the ‘‘same-gotra’’ union, the girl’s family allegedly killed the 22-year-old man and locked up their daughter to be repeatedly raped by her relatives and their friends. She would have been killed too, say cops, but the gritty 21-yearold escaped from her captors and approached the police, turning in her father and other family members.
The gory turn of events began on Diwali day in Narela, outer Delhi, where the couple was tricked into joining a friend for celebrations. Police has arrested four people — the girl’s father Daya Singh (50), her nephew Sandeep and his friends Pawan and Inderjeet — for the alleged ‘‘honour killing’’ of her husband. They are also looking into claims by the girl that she was confined and raped by Sandeep and his acquaintances from October 17 to 22 when she managed to flee.
DCP (outer) Atul Katiyar said the victim Shruti (name changed) approached cops on October 26 with the help of a friend. Based on her account, police recovered the body of her husband, Virender Singh, from a canal in Sonepat district. A Maruti van owned by Sandeep which was allegedly used to dump the body has also been seized.
Police said Shruti was 18 and a student of Class 10 when she fell in love with Singh, two years her senior at school. ‘‘Their relationship was resented by her family and the villagers of Mahara in Sonepat as both belonged to the same gotra. Unable to convince their families, they fled from the village in October 2006,’’ said Om Prakash, assistant commissioner of police for operations, Outer Delhi. Both were majors — Shruti was 18, while Virender was 19.

Gory Tragedy


Couple flee Sonepat in 2006 as villagers oppose same-gotra relationship
Virender jailed for abduction, his lover forcibly married off
Couple get married in 2008 after girl runs away from ‘abusive’ husband
On Oct 17, 2009, friend invites couple for Diwali celebrations where girl’s family allegedly locks her up, murders Virender



New Delhi: A case of kidnapping was lodged against Virender — who married Shruti despite being from the same gotra — by the Sonepat police and he was arrested and sent to jail. In January 2007, even as Virender was in jail, Shruti was forcibly married to Jaipal, from Teli Khera village near Jind in Haryana. Jaipal began to abuse her when he came to know of her past and Shruti lodged a case with the Jind police. But no action was taken and a desperate Shruti contacted Virender who was out on bail.
The couple decided to reunite and Shruti left Jaipal to set up home with Virender in Samaipur Badli in outer Delhi. On August 8, 2008, they got married in a temple in Chandigarh.




Girl raped by her relatives
‘‘They shifted to Samalkha in Haryana after her father traced them in Samaipur Badli and threatened to kill Virender,’’ said an investigating officer. Meanwhile, angered by his ‘‘wife’s boldness’’, Jaipal lodged a kidnapping case against Virender with the Jind police. ‘‘Fearing that they might be arrested again, the couple contacted the district collector’s office in Jind and clarified that they had married of their own free will.’’
That didn’t help, though. The couple were arrested and Virender, who was working
with a food company by then, was sent to jail again.
‘‘The girl refused to go back to her father’s place, fearing she would be killed, and stayed at the local Nari Niketan. All through Virender’s trial, she maintained that she had gone with him of her own accord. The case was dismissed and Virender was freed,’’ said DCP Katiyar.
On October 17, Virender was invited by his friend Inderjeet to spend Diwali at Sandeep’s house in Narela. The couple accepted, unaware that Sandeep would also be present.Around 10.30pm on that day, Shruti’s father, an ex-serviceman currently employed as a security officer, reached the house with his son and nephew and beat up Virender before allegedly strangling him to death.
‘‘Shruti was allegedly raped by Sandeep and Inderjeet in another room. Sandeep carried the body in his van and dumped it in a canal after tying a stone around the neck. The girl was kept confined in a room in Narela and threatened to return to Jind or face death,’’ said Katiyar. Police are now investigating the role of other family members in the incident. ‘‘Her first husband, Jaipal, is under the scanner too. The girl is still under severe trauma and we are providing counselling to her,’’ added the DCP.

GLACIER MELTING AND THE PREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES

The over centuries collected ice of the Himalaya is melting with a continuous rising speed. This will provoke catastrophic inundations. If the glaciers are melted India and China will be targeted by catastrophes: desert building and lack of drinking water.
At the higher altitudes of Central Asia the catastrophe is preparing. Scientist from over the world are observing the phenomena , sending out warning overheard by the Population: The glacier of the higher mountains are melting with a constantly rising speed, some of them will have been doomed to disappear in a couple of years. The one believing this is a locale problem is incorrect. Not only the cause is of global nature but also the effects of the melting process will bother the live of billions of people, by treating the sweet water supply of India and China
The glacier of the Himalaya and the Tibetan highlands are the biggest ice reservoirs of the heart beside the poles.
Tousend of valleys at high altitude are filled up with ice. The water born from the ice collects in big lakes, being the source of the rivers. Estimation counted 15,000 lakes with a common surface of 112,000 sqm. 9000 of theses are ending in lakes. Nobody knows the amount of water is stored in the frozen valleys. Satellite observations just give an imppression of the surface but no idea of the depth of the lakes.



Scientist estimate that the lost of ice mass is between 2 and seven per year. The length of the glacier is reduced by 60 to 70 m per year. . Conform to Achim Steiner, excutive director of the Environmental Program of the United Nations (UNEP the glacier on Chinese territory will by reduced by 2/3 in 2050. Some scientist believe by 2050 all glacier will have been disappeared.
This is not only due to global warming but also due the progressing industrialization of India and China emitting a huge amount on particulates rising to high altitudes and forming giant brown clouds (ABC’s) absorbing the infrared rays rising from the earth enhancing the green house effect. Additionally are the glacier covered with rubble and boulders reflecting the impacting sunrays a lot more than the reflecting ice?

Translated from an article from Roland Benn in Merian

The melting of the ice will form giant sees of melted ice. Only in Nepal and Bhutan there are 4997 of such lakes and are regular limited by the end – moraine of the moving ice. These lakes are now rising with a speed that the deposits of the moraine will not be able to withhold them and are coming to the point of bursting.
The result would be that enormous quantities of water coming from altitudes as high as 4000 m will burst into the lower valleys, several hundred thousand of people would than be in great danger
Scientist of UNEP recently detected 44 sees being at the critical point UNEP regional director Surendra Shrestha stipulated that the volume of the Tsho-Rolpa-See in Nepal as risen by a factor of 6 since the early 50’s. If the dam would break the water mixed with rubble will cause a flood catastrophe in an area of 100 km.

HAPPY DIWALI- ALSO FOR THE RAGPICKERS ?

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



New Delhi: As the Central Market at Lajpat Nagar shimmered and everyone went about shopping and eating out with family, 10-yearold Dipak pushed through the crowd with a sackful of rags on his shoulder. Diwali is serious business for ragpickers like him for this is when they make that extra buck with gift wrappings, cardboard containers and disposable plastic strewn all over the place.
Dipak starts his day as early as 5am and leaves his house in Badarpur to collect the rags before Central Market opens. Festival time means more work for the wrappings disposed of by shopkeepers are better in quality. The day’s collections from the sale of these waste items gets the children anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 100 on an average. Festival days are, however, special and rags can fetch anywhere up to Rs 150 a day.
Rahul, 12, comes from Madanpur Khadar to Central Market with his grandmother to sift out useful waste from the lanes of the market.
He said that the collection of plastic wrappings has gone down this time due to the plastic ban. Ragpickers earn up to Rs 150 during festivals as compared to Rs 50-150 on normal days




Festival means boom time for city ragpickers
A vacant parking space in the middle of the market reveals the Diwali collection of these ragpickers. On the eve of the festival the children and their guardians were seen going through large sacks of waste items. From used glasses, plates, empty bottles, cardboard wrappings to ropes and containers, the sacks stock almost every piece of useful waste collected through the day. While Moushmi’s mother sorted the waste, the five-year-old giggled away smashing and rolling a used plastic glass a shopper threw along the way. For these children, life revolves around waste.
Ten-year-old Zakir who had a busy day in crowded Sarojini Nagar market pointed that after the market closes the collection process will pick up as that’s the time when the police doesn’t chase them away.
The buzz and the glamour of the markets is in absolute contrast to their lives, but these ragpickers perform their roles focussing only on the road below watching out for every small piece of waste that can get them money.
Ragpickers earn up to Rs 150 (approx 2 Euro) during festivals as compared to Rs 50-150 (approx 1- 2 euro)on normal days

A more cynical news paper article is indeed hard to find

HALF OF INDIA'S CHILDREN MALNOURISHED

As the world observes World Food Day on Friday, India, with 47 per cent of its children under the age of six malnourished, ranks below countries like Bangladesh and Nepal on the state of hunger, a report says.


According to the report by ActionAid, an international NGO, India stood at the 22nd spot amongst a list of 51 countries, like Australia, Britain, the US, Nepal and Bangladesh.



India's case showed a lot of contrasts. While the country ranked amongst the first three developing countries on the indicator for social protection, because of poor implementation over 30 million Indians have joined the ranks of hungry since mid-1990s, the study revealed.

Babu Matthew, country director for ActionAid India, said: "The dark side of India's economic growth has been that the excluded social groups have been further marginalised, compounding their hunger, malnutrition and even leading to starvation deaths."

Meanwhile, China has been able to cut numbers of its hungry people by 58 million in ten years through strong state support for small farmers, the report said.

The ActionAid report said that India has some of the best legislations for social protection amongst the developing nations on nutrition, free school meals, employment guarantee, and food subsidy for the poor and pension for vulnerable groups.

However, talking about poor implementation of laws and schemes which results in them becoming futile for the common man, Amar Joyti Nayak, food rights head of the NGO, said: "Implementation remains a massive challenge in the absence of recognition of rights of the poor".

"Entitlements have to be delivered on the ground by empowering the communities and enforced earnestly with greater political will by the government," he said.

"In a year when poor are reeling under crop loss due to droughts and floods in India, focus must be on supporting agriculture, especially subsistence and women farmers," Nayak added.

The report said that although the farm loan waiver enabled a boost in investment to agriculture in 2008, longer term interventions are required. Delay in payment of wages through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) further ails those who have been already starving.


Jellema said: "Massive and urgent support to poor farmers, and social welfare programmes for vulnerable groups, are needed to reverse growing global hunger. At the World Food Summit next month, donor countries need to announce an additional 23 billion dollars to support these measures."

From IBN LIVE Network

THE DORMITORY TRUCK

The picture was taken at the centre of Nasik, but is typical for all India, not respecting any security rules , one sharp break and they will all be on the floor with risk of live !!!

SUPERSTITION & EUNUCHS

82 % of all Indians belive that it brings luck to spent money to eunuchs.I have no idea why there are eunuchs , maybe some native Indian could explain. I simply hope that babies without there will get humilated just because later they could bring luck to the ones making presents to them.

THE GOLD DIGGERS OF PANCHAVATI (NASHIK)

It is obviously tradition to trow coins into the holy Godavari river to thank the deities or ask for a benefice. These coins are not lost after the festivities: at low water level the people from the area start to dig out the coins from the mud. A very cumbersome, unhygenic and dangereous expedise.

On one side along the river are no sewage tratment plants, the water is extremely dirty and you do'nt need a microscope to see that. On the other side the recent Dusshera feast, combined with the immersion of a ton of effigies all painted very colourful with paints containing Cadmium, Mercury and Lead are now disolved in the water, which makes the water toxic. Despite all that this water is also used for bathing and washing the cloths.


















The more or less rare coins together with bone fragments ( I hope they are not human nature)are than later sold at the local market.

VEG ART VII

THE BRONZE GALLERY OF THE GOVERNEMENT MUSEUM - CHENNAI- EGMORE

The bronze gallery features has the finest collection of almost 700 bronzes from South India, mainly from the PALLAVA & CHOLA period (9th - 13th century). They have been saved and retrieved from temples and sites in the region There are many very expressive and impressive of Nataraja (SHIVA) performing the cosmic dance of creation. Other bronzes show Shiva and Parvati. But also Vishnu, Rama,Ramanraya, Sita and Ganesh are shown in differnt positions with their holistic attributes

STREETDOG'S COMPLAINT- FROM BRINDLE

Brindle
Woof! I’m Brindle, the street dog who adopted Bunnylady and Jugfellow some years ago. The reason i’m writing this is because Jugfellow is too upset to write his column himself. Why? Because, once again, some misguided residents of the National Media Centre, the cooperative housing society near Gurgaon where we live, have started off on the so-called ‘stray dog menace’. This happens with unfailing regularity, not just in the NMC but also in that macrocosm of the NMC that we call India. From Kochi to Kolkata, Bagdogra to Bangalore, someone or the other will bring up the stray dog menace, causing a whole lot of innocent, perfectly harmless street dogs to be rounded up and, more often than not, put to death in the most inhumane and cruel manner.
People never seem to understand that the Indian street dog (please don’t call us strays) are hardy, intelligent, affectionate creatures, often much more so that their pedigreed, imported counterparts, who have been viciously inbred by exploitative breeders. Street dogs have to be all these things in order to survive. Far from harming people, they are – when properly vaccinated against rabies and other diseases – man’s best pals, to coin a phrase. They act as excellent guards for the neighbourhood, alerting everyone to the intrusion of strangers by barking. Yet people keep on wanting to get rid of them. Not realising that nature abhors a vacuum and if you get rid of one lot of street dogs, another lot will inevitably take their place.
There is no such thing as a ‘stray dog menace’. There is only a ‘stray human menace’. Who is it that has strayed from the straight and narrow of God’s plan (and please don’t tell me that God is dog spelt backwards, because if i’ve heard that once i’ve heard it for the umpteenth time)?
Is it dogs, who live together amicably in the casteless, creedless democracy of doggydom, who have strayed? Or is it humans, with their caste conflicts and their religious wars, their whites and their blacks, their Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs and Christians, their Maoists and their monarchists, their Indias and their Pakistans, their terrorists and their victims, who are the real strays? And the real menace. Not only to each other, but to all of the rest of creation as well.
It wasn’t dogs who created 9/11, and 26/11, and al-Qaeda, and the Sri Lankan civil war, and the Taliban, and not one but two world wars. All these are human creations. And what wondrous creations. Can you imagine a dog creative enough to devise 65,000 nuclear warheads capable of killing every living creature on this planet a hundred times over? No. Only humans are creative enough to have done that. Though they have yet to prove themselves creative and clever enough to find a cure for the common cold. Or AIDS, or cancer, or a score of other killer diseases.
Humans have been too busy doing other things. Like polluting the planet and destroying its environment. The world’s forest cover has been thinned from 7.6 billion hectares in the pre-industrial age to 2.8 billion hectares. And that’s fast disappearing. Between 1700 and 1900, thanks to human activity, more than 20,000 species of plants, 593 species of birds, over 400 species of animals and 209 species of amphibians became extinct. Today, humans wipe out one species every day on an average. Tell me about the ‘stray dog menace’.
Unlike humans, who think the universe and everything in it was created only for their benefit to do with as they will, we dogs believe in the co-fraternity of all living things. And that includes cats. Cats? Oh, lor, what have Bunnylady and Jugfellow done? They’ve let Himal into the place. And Himal is a cat! Who insists on literally rubbing shoulders with me. Yuck. So, while there’s no such thing as a stray dog menace, if you were to talk about a stray cat menace, you might get me to agree. Or maybe not. For the basic dharma that doggydom teaches is to live and let live. Which means cats too. Where’s that damn Himal gone to…?

Web Linkshttp://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/
Contactsjug.suraiya@timesgroup.com

Printed without the permission of Jug Surai... I admire a lot and would like to recommend his books like JUGGLING ACT as compensation

THE WHITE BABA'S

In her long journey from Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh to the Gulf of Cambay, the Narmada traverses 1,312 kilometres dotted with temples. Like the Ganga, this ancient river has thousands of devotees, many of them from far-off lands. They are the ‘gora babas’ or white sadhus who lead the ascetic life — of meditation, a frugal diet and the occasional chillum. None of them came to India to become ascetics. So what happened? A shrug, a smile and two words explain it all: “My guru.” Many of them have applied for Indian citizenship. As their applications remain caught in red tape, they wait — for that piece of paper. And for salvation.

Narmada Shankar, 44
Originally from Austria
Clad in an ochre loincloth, his matted hair coiled high, Narmada Shankar greets us with an Om Namoh Shivai. He lives in a one-room dwelling, surrounded by the many fruit-bearing trees he has planted. His chelas or disciples run errands for him and help cook his meals. Exactly what he did some 20 years ago for his guru, Brahmachari Raghunathji Maharaj.
Stockl Erwin was training to be a priest in Austria when he set out on a journey to find an answer to the eternal mystery — death. Travelling across Greece, he changed course and landed up in Omkareshwar, where he met his guru. His parents tried to take him back to Austria but failed. And made their peace with him when, on a trip to India, his father found Narmada Shankar giving first aid to poor villagers at the ashram. “My father was so happy. He said, ‘Eighteen years ago, I told your mother our son was a loser, I can now tell her he is a hero’.”

In 1993, Narmada Shankar undertook the Narmada Parikrama, circumnavigating the river on foot without once crossing it. “It
took me three years. I would start at sunrise and stop at sunset, carrying my
meagre belongings on my head and eating whatever I was given in ashrams and homes on the way,” he recalls. His one wish is “to die on the banks of the Narmada”.

Omkarpuri Baba, 52
Originally from France
At the Juna Akhada in Omkareshwar, sitting in vajrasana pose, Omkarpuri Baba recalls how he came to India 22 years ago, went to the Kumbh Mela in January 1989, met his guru, Srimahant Kalyanpuri Baba, and stayed on to be his disciple for life. “So much love. Guruji ne bahut prem diya — apne bachhe jaisa (he gave me as much love as he would his own child),” he says, taking a drag of the chillum. Like the other disciples, he swept and cooked for his guru until his death. “Aur namoh narayan bas (And prayer; that’s all),” he adds.

He refuses to tell us his real name, but does say he worked in the Navy and was an only child. “Forget about the foreigners who have made this land their home. Write about the way this land is going to be destroyed in the next two decades,” he instructs me, pointing to the overflowing gutter snaking its way into the river and a heap of discarded plastic and other waste.

Pujari Ram Das, 53
Originally from Italy
Ram Das, born Oscar Spill in the harbour city of Ancona in Italy, came to India in 1975 as part of a team to research India’s holy men. The team split over whether to go north or south. Spill decided to go his own way, found his guru, Raghuvir Dasji, on the banks of the Narmada and stayed with him for 20 years. “After he passed away I roamed the country till I reached Janki ghat in Varanasi and learnt the puja rituals from priest Ram Palak Das. I then served as the pujari in a temple in Ayodhya before the trustees of the Hanuman temple asked me to come to Indore,” he says.

Pujari Ram Das wakes up at 3.30 am and meditates for an hour before cleaning the temple, bathing and dressing the deity, and preparing the prasad for the gods. Does he occasionally offer a prasad of pasta? The lines around his eyes deepen as he laughs, “No, only Indian fare.”

DELHI PUBLIC TRANSPORT

It is amazing , now Delhi public transport is questionized ... I thought it is excellent at least if compared to Gurgaon , where there is none beside some lready criminally overfilled autoriksha carrieing up to 16 people on smalles surface.

WELL IT IS AS IT SHOULD BE NO ELECTRICITY, NO WATER, NO WASTE WATER REMOVAL, NO TOILET PAPER< NO TOILETS, NO MONEY, NO TRANSPORT, NO FOOD, but there is always some space for an additional baby.


Megha Suri | TNN



New Delhi: Think of public transport in Delhi and the images that come to your mind are ‘‘killer’’ Bluelines, overcharging autos, non-existent taxis and a Metro system which covers just a fraction of the city. For a majority of Delhi residents, an efficient, reliable and comfortable public transport system still remains a distant dream.
In the absence of a proper transportation policy, the capital’s vehicular population has crossed the 50 lakh mark and over 1,000 vehicles are being added to Delhi roads daily. Congestion and traffic jams are commonplace and for those in areas where Delhi Metro has not reached, residents are still at the mercy of rickety Bluelines, autos and taxis, all of which seem to be out of government’s control.
Transportation is an issue which concerns every Delhiite, and even as it finds some mention in the election promises of our politicians, no one really has an action plan to sort out the mess. Admitting the poor condition of transport in city, BJP candidate from New Delhi Vijay Goel said: ‘‘Public transport is in a shabby condition as the government has failed to define a policy on how people of the city should commute. Autos overcharge, the Bluelines are still here and even the new low floor DTC buses are uncomfortable and hot. And with Nano coming now, there will absolutely be no space left on the roads.’’
What he will do to improve the situation if he comes to power? ‘‘It’s simple. One needs to take into account population of the city, see how people are commuting and accordingly formulate a policy on transport. One also needs to promote cycling as it is an eco-friendly mode,’’ he said. Even as he drove a Blueline bus to register his protest against the Congress government last year, that doesn’t find a mention in his future plans.
Former Delhi transport minister and Congress candidate from New Delhi Ajay Maken claims transport has been an important point during his interaction with his electorate, especially in areas like GK. ‘‘For the first time, the issue of urban transport has been dealt with in the Master Plan. Also, I was the only one who tried to discipline autos in my tenure as transport minister of Delhi. I got electronic meters fitted and also started a complaint center. The action was so stiff that auto drivers staged demonstrations against me at least half-a-dozen times. For the future, I have proposed multi-model transport systems with seamless integration, BRT on sensibly chosen routes and new modes like monorail and light rail transit with sufficient feeders,’’ Maken said.
Representing one of the most congested parts of the city, BJP candidate from East Delhi, Chetan Chauhan, has also been talking about the growing congestion on Delhi roads.